Announcing Windows Server vNext Preview Build 18917

Hello Windows Insiders!

Today we are pleased to release a new Insider preview build of the Windows Server VNext Semi-Annual Channel editions and Windows Admin Center Preview 1906.

Available Content

• Windows Server vNext Semi-Annual Preview

The Server Core Edition is available in the 18 supported Server languages in ISO format and in English only in VHDX format.

• Windows Server Core App Compatibility FoD Preview
• Windows Server Language Packs
• Windows Admin Center 1906

Symbols are available on the public symbol server – see Update on Microsoft’s Symbol Server blog post and Using the Microsoft Symbol Server. Matching Windows Server container images will be available via Docker Hub. For more information about Windows Server containers and Insider builds, click here.

The following keys allow for unlimited activations of Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel Previews

• Server Standard: V6N4W-86M3X-J77X3-JF6XW-D9PRV
• Server Datacenter: B69WH-PRNHK-BXVK3-P9XF7-XD84W

This Windows Server Preview will expire July 31st, 2020.

What’s New in Windows Admin Center Preview 1906

Thanks for staying up-to-date on the Windows Admin Center journey! As our first preview release following the last generally available release in April, Windows Admin Center preview 1906 includes several new preview features:

Updates tool: you can now select individual Windows updates to install, a top user request.

Windows Admin Center connectivity settings: We’ve heard from users that are in completely disconnected environments that they would prefer to have a setting in Windows Admin Center where they can specify they are offline, so there will be no notifications about Azure hybrid functionality, extensions updates, or other actions that require public internet access.

To give this a try, enter msft.sme.shell.connectivity as an experiment key in Settings-> Development -> Advanced, then visit the new Connectivity settings item. You can select Gateway to restrict online access, or Azure and Gateway if you want to access Azure features only, but nothing else on the public internet. In a future release, this menu item will also provide you with a complete list of URLs so that you can configure your firewall to block all traffic by default and explicitly allow only specific traffic to known services.

Virtual machines tool:

• Import/Export VM – We’ve added Import/Export buttons to the Virtual Machines tool for importing VMs from and exporting VMs to a local volume or remote file share. When importing VMs, you have the option to create a new VM ID, and copy the VM files or use them in-place.

[Known issue] When importing a VM and creating a copy of the VM files, if you choose a local volume or cluster shared volume as the destination, it will be saved to the volume’s root folder instead of under the “Hyper-V” folder. This will be fixed in the next release. For now, you can use the Browse button to manually navigate to the actual folder you want to import the VM to.

• VM tagging – Similar to the UI for tagging connections in Windows Admin Center, you can now tag VMs on a Hyper-V server! In the Virtual machines tool’s Inventory tab, an “Edit tags” button has been added to manage tags. These tags are saved on the Hyper-V host server and can be accessed by other admins.

[Known issue] VM tagging is not supported in the Failover Cluster or Hyper-Converged Cluster UI yet. Tags will not show up in the clustered VM view and managing tags from this view may unintentionally overwrite or delete existing tags.

• Performance improvements – Significant performance improvements have been made to reduce page load time in the Virtual machines tool.

Improvements to Azure integration functionality:

• The Azure Hybrid services tool now loads content from a feed, so that new services can be added at any time without an update of the entire tool.
• From the Account menu in setting, you can now switch between multiple Azure accounts.
• When adding a server or Windows PC to your connection list, you have a new option to log in to Azure and browse your Azure resources for the specific server or PC.

[Known issue] At this time, Windows Admin Center only enumerates your Azure resources, but cannot guarantee connectivity.

Windows Admin Center ecosystem developers: you’ll find a new menu item: Performance Profile, in the Windows Admin Center settings under the Development heading. This new tool will record your browsing session, tracking the times of each request and page load, so that you can identify opportunities to improve performance.

How to Download 

Registered Insiders may navigate directly to the Windows Server Insider Preview download page.  See the Additional Downloads dropdown for Windows Admin Center and other supplemental apps and products. If you have not yet registered as an Insider, see GETTING STARTED WITH SERVER on the Windows Insiders for Business portal.

We value your feedback!

The most important part of a frequent release cycle is to hear what’s working and what needs to be improved, so your feedback is extremely valued. For Windows Server, use your registered Windows 10 Insider device and use the Feedback Hub application. In the app, choose the Windows Server category and then the appropriate subcategory for your feedback. In the title of the Feedback, please indicate the build number you are providing feedback as shown below:

[Server #####] Title of my feedback

See Share Feedback on Windows Server via Feedback Hub for specifics. We also encourage you to visit the Windows Server Insiders space on the Microsoft Tech Communities forum to collaborate, share and learn from experts.

For Windows Admin Center, Send us feedback via UserVoice. We also encourage you to visit the Windows Admin Center space on the Microsoft Tech Communities.

Terms of Use

This is pre-release software – it is provided for use “as-is” and is not supported in production environments. Users are responsible for installing any updates made available from Windows Update.  All pre-release software made available to you via the Windows Server Insider program are governed by the Insider Terms of Use.

Known issues -Windows Admin Center Preview 1906

• Network – If you have configured an Azure Network Adapter, the value under Microsoft Azure Virtual Network Gateway Address will be formatted as a hyperlink but leads to an invalid address. [20420185]
• Azure Update Management onboarding – If you have already installed the MMA agent, or install the agent using the new integration for Azure Monitor, you will not be able to onboard the server to Azure Update Management through the UI in Windows Admin Center. If Azure Update Management is already configured (whether through Admin Center or another way), you can still onboard the server to the Azure Monitor Virtual Machines Insights solution using the Windows Admin Center UI.
• Chrome users may see 403 Forbidden response from WAC after upgrading. The workaround is to close *all* open chrome tabs (make sure there are no chrome.exe processes running). After restarting chrome, everything will function normally. We have an error message that makes this clear, but chrome users with multiple windows admin center tabs open during upgrade will not see the message.

Windows Server Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where a local user’s last logon time output from “net user username” may not be recorded even when the user has accessed the server’s network share.
• Fixed an issue when attempting to update Server Standard to Server Datacenter, results in error “Error: 1168. An error occurred while applying target edition component setting. The upgrade cannot proceed.”
• Fixed an issue when domain trust was broken when the recycle bin configured on the domains carrying the trust.
• Fixed an issue where an invalid file was being created in %Systemroot%System32LogFilesSum by User Access Logging.

Windows Server Known Issues

• Using ntdsutil.exe to move of the Active Directory database files may fail with error: “Move file failed with source <original_full_db_path> and Destination <new_full_db_path> with error 5 (Access is denied.)”
• Auto-logon configured by login scripts may fail to work properly
• Status of online/offline files icon and status bar may not display an accurate status. OfflineFiles event manager logs will show the actual state of the files.
• PowerShell may report an incorrect NdisPhysicalMedium result on IPoIB adapter
• Applies to App Compat FOD MMC.exe only: Multiple Active Directory Users and Computers snap-ins added to the same MMC.exe instance could show inconsistent or no data on part of the snap-ins after adding extra columns to the UI view.  Wokaround: for UI user management, use a separate MMC for each ADUC (DSA.MSC) snap-in.
• Scheduled startup tasks may fail to run. An event is logged, ID 101 with the error code ERROR_LOGON_FAILURE when the failure occurs.
• DCPromo fails if the interface metric of the physical NIC is larger than Loopback Interface
• Renaming a domain controller may update incorrect attributes in Active Directory (msDS-AdditionalDnsHostName, msDS-AdditionalSamAccountName and servicePrincipalName attributes) leaving orphaned data behind (ValidateSPNsAndDNSHostNameActual)
• Domain Controller rename updates incorrect attributes in AD leaving orphaned data behind (ValidateSPNsAndDNSHostNameActual).  This can be reproduced by adding a new FQDN, setting it as primary, restarting the domain controller, then removing the current FQDN.  Checking the msDS-AdditionalDnsHostName, msDS-AdditionalSamAccountName and servicePrincipalName attributes will incorrect values.
• Self-service users cannot install Feature on Demand (FOD) packages and Language Packs for Windows Server Update Service (WSUS), System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), and Autopilot scenarios.
• After disabling and re-enabling SR-IOV capability on a NIC on Linux VM, Windows may report “Error applying Network Adapter changes.” Details will show “The Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service encountered an unexpected error: Call was canceled by the message filter. (0x80010002).”  A side effect of this failure is that the VM will remain in a stopping state when shutting down the VM, and cannot be restarted without a power reset
• When deploying a controller VM, after the last reboot in the deployment process the controller VM is not visible.

No downtime for Hustle-As-A-Service,
Dona <3

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Source: Announcing Windows Server vNext Preview Build 18917